172 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT. some of the luxuries of India. Among these theyIV. had a singular predilection for the spiceries andaromatics which that country yields in such varietyand abundance. Whence their peculiar fondnessfor these arose, it is not of importance to inquire.Whoever peruses the writers of the middle ages,•will find many particulars which confirm this obser-vation. In every enumeration of Indian commodi-ties which they give, spices are always mentionedas the most considerable and precious article s . Intheir cookery , all dishes were highly seasonedwith them. In every entertainment of parade, aprofusion of them was deemed essential to magni-ficence. In every medical prescription they wereprincipal ingredients 6 . But considerable as thedemand for spices had become , the mode inwhich the nations of Europe had hitherto beensupplied with them was extremely disadvantage-ous. The ships employed by the merchants ofAlexandria never ventured to visit those remoteregions which produce the most valuable spices,and before they could be circulated throughEurope, they were loaded with the accumulatedprofits received by four or five different bandsthrough which they had passed. But the Portu-guese, with a bolder spirit of navigation, havingpenetrated into every part of Asia, took in their

5 Jac. de Vitriac. Hist. Hieros. ap. Bongarf. i. 1099.Wilh. Tyr. lib. xii. c. 2;.

Du Gange, Gloffar. Verb. Aromata , Species. Henry’s"Hist. of G. Brit. vol. iv. p. 597, 598.